Sarah Heth, senior and assistant managing editor of The Herald, will say goodbye to Cornerstone this year.

Her apartment basement may be full of children’s books, but the former teacher education major intends to keep that box closed.

“I am hoping to get a job at a book publishing company,” said Heth, an English major who interned at Credo Communications. “Also I am actually applying at Peace Corps. I have most of [the application] finished. It is soon to be sent in.

“I have kind of thought about it as a dream that would sort of never really happen for a few years,” said Heth. “I haven’t seriously thought about it until the last couple of months. I suddenly thought, ‘You know what, I can actually do this.’”

Heth’s current goal is to get a job for the 9-12 month time period the Peace Corps takes to approve or deny applicants.

But before Heth launches into her future, she has already left a noticeable impact at Cornerstone.

Rachel Watson, Your Life editor of The Herald, recalled seeing Heth beyond the concrete classroom walls.

“The first time I went over to her apartment to hang out, I got to see her in another situation outside The Herald,” said Watson. “She is just a normal college student like me. She has her roommates, and she lives in a cute little apartment. It’s kind of messy.

“I brought over my junk food and ate and vented. She is a good listener. The Herald is not her be-all and end-all,” said Watson. “She has a life outside of that. She is just a very caring person.”

Within the classroom, however, Watson observed Heth’s willingness to help with work that arises. “If there is ever someone that needs her, she is one of the first people to volunteer,” said Watson. “If at all possible, she will rearrange her schedule. She is a very servant-hearted person.”

Alan Blanchard, faculty adviser of The Herald, has known Heth through all her different roles on The Herald. Seeing her serve as a reporter and managing editor, Blanchard observed Heth as dedicated and hard-working, he said.

“Sarah ‘no nonsense’ Heth has been one of my favorite opinion page writers/columnists, as she has a gift for making a point in a very direct, pragmatic and poignant manner,” said Blanchard in an e-mail. “I think Sarah will excel in whatever endeavor she chooses to pursue. She has a lot of energy, enthusiasm, great people skills and a love for Christ.”

As she plans for what lies ahead, Heth reflects on her years at Cornerstone.

During her freshman year, Heth lived in Cook on the first floor, west side.

“That was the most amazing section,” said Heth. “I made all my closest friends that year in that section. All the girls I live with this year in my apartment are from that section, except one.  Those are probably the closest friendships I have made.”

All of these friends are teacher education majors and helped put things in perspective, said Heth.

“The Herald is not the whole world, your life is not the whole world,” said Heth. “English is not the whole world.”

For Heth, grasping perspectives on life involved change.

“I would like to hope that I have grown in every way possible,” said Heth. “I think I have grown as a student. I have learned what is expected of me and tried to give it, in that respect. I think I have really grown relationally. I have grown less shy and more able to … hold intelligent conversations with people that I don’t necessarily know and be able to go deeper in general.”

“My ways of thinking have changed,” said Heth. “I think I have become … open to more ideas and able to handle different perspectives and look at them all, weigh them and say what is biblical, what doesn’t really matter and what does. To be able to just look at all those things and handle them all in a loving way.”

Watson remembered the humorous times working with Heth.

“We laugh a lot together,” said Watson. “We’ll be sitting together in our meetings, I’ll say it’s time for editing and she’ll say, ‘Shut up, I am reading Calvin and Hobbes.’ She has a good sense of humor and has made us learn how to laugh at ourselves.

“She is just a really sweet girl, and she has a big, big heart,” said Watson. “I think that will carry her very far, because her motives are so good.”

Heth also recognized her appreciation for people in her life for the past four years.

“I am grateful to Cornerstone and mostly to my professors and friends I have made here,” said Heth, “[And for] all the things they have taught me that have prepared me for life after graduation and outside the bubble of Cornerstone.”

“I really feel that my future is really in God’s hands. I know that is really cliché, and everyone’s future is in God’s hands,” said Heth. “And I am putting in applications.

“I really feel God has something up His sleeve, and I am waiting to see what that is. And that is really exciting,” said Heth. “I am really at a crossroads in my life and that makes it adventurous. I am excited to see what that might be.”